Endometriosis deserves greater public awareness

Because of the difficulty in diagnosing it, endometriosis often goes undiagnosed or worse, misdiagnosed. Patients who receive a wrong diagnosis will often suffer so much more with the wrong treatment options.

Education and empowerment are the key. Patients need to be trained to ask the right questions, know their family and medical history, and not hesitate to seek a second opinion. With 15-to-28 percent of all medical cases being misdiagnosed, a painful condition like endometriosis can cause even more unnecessary suffering when it is diagnosed late or not at all. Unless we take real steps to educate patients and transform the system to allow doctors to spend more time with these patients, the problem will only continue to worsen in relative silence.